Extremely Dangerous - Plot Synopsis (Episode
1)

Last Update: 03 December 1999

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Episode One

On a dark night on the wild Scottish
borders, a man convicted of the brutal murder of his wife and
daughter escapes from a speeding train, leaving behind only a
paperback novel - Patagonia. He is Neil Byrne.

Instantly showing himself to be a tenacious
survivor, evading capture by instinct, Byrne disguises himself
and makes his way to Manchester, where he goes to ground, finding
himself a job as a driver for Deuce Cars, a run-down cab firm,
run by the sardonic Ali Khan, and some quiet digs. But trouble
starts when Joe Connor, head of the local crime syndicate, hears
of Byrne's escape and puts out the word that he wants Byrne killed.

Byrne begins his search for the truth and
visits Frank Fleming in an expensive nursing home owned by the
mafia. Fleming was the previous local Godfather, and had trusted
Byrne when he was undercover, treating him as a son. The revelation
at Byrne's murder trial that he was an MI5 spy gave Joe Connor
the excuse he'd been looking for to oust Fleming and take his
place at the head of the mafia syndicate. Fleming, it seems,
is to spend the rest of his days in a nursing home, unable to
exact revenge on Connor's coup. Byrne quizzes Frank about the
book Patagonia, but gets nowhere.

Next, disguised as a telecom engineer,
Byrne breaks into his old MI5 office and looks up his file. It
says PERMANENTLY ABANDONED. An old colleague recognises him and
is petrified. She clearly thinks he is capable of murder.

Desperate, Byrne breaks into the home of
DI Ford, the officer in charge of putting him in jail. He questions
him fiercely, wanting to know who paid him to fit him up. Ford
is a straight copper who is sure Byrne is guilty and believes
the act was so horrific he has simply erased it from his memory.
Could that be the truth?

Distraught, Byrne escapes, takes his car
to the moors, and breaks down.